Scrapping Of Nimrod.

[Jim Brady]

You would've thought that being an island nation Nimrod would've played a very important part in patrolling our coast and seeking out whatever was lurking under the waters there of.The government decided in 2010 that Nimrod was to expensive so it had to go leaving us completely exposed to any foreign power that fancied having a nose around wherever they fancied.There has been a Russian sub now lurking off Scotland it is thought that it is interested in spying on Trident.There is nothing we can do about searching for the Russian sub so we have had to call in France and Canada to search for it for us,what a carry on.!!!The government were warned when they scrapped Nimrod that we would be reliant on others to carry out searches for us.
France and Canada have been searching for ten days without success.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Keith Tindell]

Its also supposed to be snooping around all our seabed communication cables, ready to cut them off in the event of war, KT

[John Pruden]

jim half way in the making of the new nimrod they were cut up for scrap now we buy of the shelf from America that says it all?? why is it this country is always a day late and a dolour short why won't the brains listen to the men who know better we as an island nation should have the best army navy air power for the size of us in the world we make the bloody stuff and sell it but haven't got it ourselves stupid me thinks?? jp

[vic mcclymont]

Nimrod was 9 years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of pounds behind schedule and would have needed hundreds more to complete the project - hence the scrapping.
Although it was scrapped replacements should have been purchased before now - not wait until the last minute.
Reading the storey of the hiring of a maritime surveillance plane, is that the MOD playing politics.
The mouth of the Firth of Clyde is well protected with spy sensors that a shark couldn't gain entrance.
The Navy knows where every Russian sub lurks in wait and carries out stringent methods of deception for any spying submarine.
Russian subs are inherently noisy in comparison to the UK and are easy to detect.
So guys don't believe everything-although I do agree that we require maritime search planes.
Vic

[j.sabourn]

I watched a program a few weeks ago and have no reason to believe it untrue, but they have the technology now and also believe it has been used, to put a chip in a persons mobile and can switch on and off and listen to a persons conversation. With that sort of advanced technology and probably more we don't know about, I can only surmise anyone who wants warships planes and U-boats built by a foreign power can only be a moron. such chips inserted into the steelwork of any weapon of war would put the user to a distinct disadvantage for all sorts of reasons. Maybe their knowledge doesn't go past fish and chips. What is the point of spending billions of dollars on weapons that are going to be in other words junk. If Australia goes ahead and spends money on having German U-Boats built then all I can say I believe we too have a bunch of morons at head of government. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

#2... Keith that has been going on for the past 35 years that I know about as was involved on a lot of exercises to recover Russian listening devices off the sea bed. I doubt very much if cable communications are reliable anymore, and even the scramble devices have probably also been broken. However this was during the late 70"s and early 80"s tit for tat as we all did the same. The press when they get such stories from jolly jack are in this case 3 or 4 decades behind the times. Cheers JS

[Jim Brady]

Vic #4 are you saying that the French and Canadians are not carrying out patrols at the moment on our behalf.Just watched David Cameron talking of the future of our armed services the shopping list includes 9 Boeing maritime patrol aircraft I imagine these must be able to carry out the samework as the Nimrod did.It showed pictures there on the news of the new build Nimrods that were cut up for scrap.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

The Nimrod was grounded in March 2010 by the Labour MoD, THEN 2011 the Conservative MoD ordered the scrapping.
All to save money. We leave ourselves wide open but still donate Billions to despotic Dictators in Africa and the east.

I cannot find out who the Minister was who ordered this destruction.
Brian


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Media captionUnite's John Fussey described the dismantling as 'barbaric vandalism'

Work on the controversial scrapping of nine multimillion-pound Nimrod aircraft is under way at a BAE Systems factory in Greater Manchester.

Diggers moved in to dismantle the empty aircraft behind large screens at BAE Woodford, Stockport, on Wednesday.

Unions have criticised the decision to break-up the planes, which is costing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) £200m.

A spokesman for the MoD said ministers had made it clear that the "difficult" decision would not be reversed.

The dismantling process is being carried out by private contractors at the site and is expected to be completed by the end of March.




'Defence gap'

Unite national officer Bernie Hamilton said: "The lunatics have taken over the asylum when the government orders the Ministry of Defence to break up £4bn worth of world-class defence equipment.


Nimrod at Kinloss
Image caption
The Nimrod aircraft carry sophisticated radars and listening equipment

"The decision to scrap the Nimrod leaves a huge gap in the UK's defence capability and is a betrayal of the workers that played a part in its manufacture."

The Nimrod MRA4 surveillance and reconnaissance planes were being built at BAE Systems sites in Stockport, Lancashire and East Yorkshire.

The project was ditched by the government in October's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) and will save the MoD an estimated £2bn over the next 10 years.

'Financial pressure'

An MoD spokesman said: "Ministers and service chiefs have made clear that the decision in October's SDSR not to bring the Nimrod MRA4 into service was difficult, but it will not be reversed and the dismantling process is under way.

"The severe financial pressures and the urgent need to bring the defence programme into balance meant we could not retain all existing programmes."

The MoD and BAE signed a contract in 1996 to build 21 planes. This was reduced to 12 and later nine.

All were due to be handed over to the RAF by 2012, but the project was scrapped in an effort to save money.

A spokesman for BAE said: "Disposal of the Nimrod MRA4 airframes which are located at Woodford and Warton is the responsibility of the UK MoD as they own them.

"We can confirm that they have appointed specialist contractors Metal and Waste Recycling Ltd and Hill Demolition and Dismantling to carry out this work which has now started."

[vic mcclymont]

Jim. Not saying they aren't patrolling on our behalf. the RN has other ways of following and finding Russian subs.
How did we find a Russian sub lurking in our waters without a surveillance aircraft.
Vic

[Jim Brady]

Recently wasn't a fishing boat almost pulled under in the Irish Sea which couldn't be explained,best guess was it's nets were snagged on a Russian sub.Nobody had a clue it was there.
Regards.
Jim.B.